


What Lies in a Sea of Hope

by moon_opals



Category: Disney Duck Universe, DuckTales (Cartoon 2017), Titanic (1997)
Genre: Bickering Married Couple, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Goldiemama appears and it hurts, Old Married Couple, Pre-Series, Titanic References, sinking ships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 08:49:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20793935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moon_opals/pseuds/moon_opals
Summary: As the Titanic sunk, Scrooge searched for the one treasure he couldn't afford to lose.He didn't know Goldie was searching for the same thing.





	What Lies in a Sea of Hope

A smart man would seek safety and let her drown. A wise man would shut up and drag her out, kicking and screaming. Scrooge liked to think he was smart and wise, and on every other occasion, he was. Goldie unraveled him with a power even she didn’t understand.

He didn’t know if it was her eyes or mouth or attitude. He didn’t know if it was her laughter or her insatiable hunger for gold. He knew it wasn’t one or the other. Maybe it was everything. He wished he knew.

Whatever it was, he knew this wasn’t the place or time to debate. The unsinkable ship was doing the one thing the world claimed it couldn’t do. Sink.

“Goldie, blast you,” he shouted, pushing one larger dog faced man to the side in an attempt to close their widening distance. “We need to get to the dinghies.”

She was fast and slimmer, maneuvering around rushing people in her attempt to find what she boarded for. Sweat threaded in her hair; accented under the moon’s observance. He ran between a man’s leg and watched her make a sharp left. His heart sank. She was going to drown.

“I saw them go this way,” she panted aloud, loud enough for him to hear. “There’s no way I’m leaving this ship without it, Scrooge.”

“At this rate, you won’t leave this ship at all.” He didn’t want to lose his temper in a place like this. Terror was deadlier than a coal mine. “Do you want to die here?”

They descended into the ship’s lower compartments where water was up to their thighs. Scrooge swallowed thickly and nodded, agreeing with his inner turmoil.

“I saw them down here,” she whirled at him, eyes panicked. “A blonde and red-head. I think her name was Rose, but I know she was with Jack.”

“Jack? Who’s Jack?” What a terrible place for jealousy to prick him, but prick him it did. “Goldie, the ship is sinking.”

“Sinking?” Goldie threw her head back, laughing. “Scroogey, if I am going to die, it is not going to be like this, and if they’re going to die, well,” she paused thoughtfully, “I can see Jack dying here. But Rose? Please.” She snorted. “She’ll marry some other wealthy man, and they'll have ten children, four will probably live to adulthood. She'll grow old, surrounded by twenty grandchildren and forty grandchildren, and right before she dies, she'll toss the diamond into the ocean as some god damn poetic gesture. I can see her doing that. I warned him about girls like her.”

Scrooge had no idea what she was talking about, but he presumed she’d taken a fancy to the working and upper class guests. He didn’t care, not now. He gripped her waist. Without another word, he threw her over his shoulder.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She screeched, clawing like an angered polecat. “How dare you? Put me down this instant. They’re getting away with the Hope of the Ocean!”

“And you’ll live to steal it another day.”

“Oh, you’ll probably just buy it, and,” she blinked. An idea formed in her head, and she relaxed in his hold. “Okay, sure, let's find a lifeboat. We’ll be lucky if there’s any left.”

Scrooge rolled his eyes. “Ack, yes, the love o’ my life plans to rob me again. I hope the girl loses the blasted jewel, just so you can’t get it.”

Goldie gasped, smacking him on the back of his head. “We’re rivals,” she complained, punching him on the back. “Not soulmates. We’re supposed to be at each other’s throats.”

“Whatever you want,” he grunted, reaching the front deck at last. “As long as we’re alive to do it.”

“So what? You were going to drown with me?”

“If it came to be, yes, I would.”

Goldie went quiet, craning her neck to catch his expression. Aged lines creased his feathers, pronouncing his forty-five years, but the determination - the simplicity of said determination was present as it’d always been.

What a stupid thing to say, a stupid thing to shout at him. Goldie knew. She’d always known, so why would she try to bait him with that? He turned it on her effortlessly, leaving her dumb and shamed. She reckoned that was his intent, but Scrooge never thought far enough for things like that.

She looked out to the chaos, the men and women and children clamoring for safety. Soon, very soon indeed, the ship would enter its final encore, and there’d be no way out for those unable to secure a lifeboat. She swallowed the knot in her throat and felt the tangled ball explode in her chest.

“He’s seventeen,” Goldie whispered. “Just a boy…”

“Hm?” He set her down. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” she crossed her arms, turning her back to them. She entered the lifeboat with another group, scooting over to the side as he took a seat beside her. “I’m going to get that necklace, you know.”

“I know,” he replied, taking her hand into his. “I know.”

She didn’t look as the lifeboat was lowered into the water. She didn’t hear the screams become distant cries in the night. She didn’t see the unsinkable ship descend as a blot, an empty blot under the sea with its captives held prisoner.

She refused to look back - never, ever would she look back - to see the bodies floating on still, quiet waters.

“Dear?”

“What, Scrooge?”

So soft, so frustratingly kind. “There was nothing you could do,” he tried to comfort her. His thumb ran circles over her knuckles. “He went back. He made his choice.”

She closed her eyes, taking a deep, liberating breath. “I know,” she said, tightly. “I know.”

Of course, knowing didn’t mean she _believed_ it. Believing was an entirely different matter neither were strong enough to discuss, so her thoughts strayed to the gorgeous diamond instead.

Maybe it was better for the ocean to claim it, Goldie mused. Its gleam was tainted, somehow.

**Author's Note:**

> Would Goldie jack up a 101 year old woman for dropping one of the most famous jewels/diamonds into the vast ocean for some dumbass poetic gesture? Yes, yes, she would.


End file.
